Second half surge sends Bulldogs past Patriots

Saturday was an emotional day for the Harrisburg football team - and for a varsity of reasons.

It's been 500-plus days since the last high school football game was played in Illinois. Parlay that with the fact that it's been 904 days since the Bulldogs last picked up a victory (a Week 6, September 28, 34-32 win at home against Benton) on the gridiron.

Harrisburg would go on to lose its last three games that year and proceed to follow up the next year with an 0-8 record, including a 46-21 loss at Massac County that broke a 29-game losing streak the Patriots notched the program's first win since Sept. 2, 2016.

It was also the return to the sidelines for the first time of former Harrisburg football coach - now Massac County's main man, Jason Roper and the cherry on top of the sundae was Saturday was Harrisburg's Homecoming.

The end result: a 22-12 Harrisburg win with a strong second half showing to start the season 1-0.

It's been a long and winding road for Harrisburg head coach Gabe Angelly, who is now 11-25 in five seasons as head coach, but starting the season off with a dub is always promising.

"We have had such a good offseason with kids working hard and getting stronger and the one thing we talked about was will that transfer over to the field? I didn't think our kids gassed out too bad toward the end. I think they did a good job of staying focused, overcoming some mistakes and I'm just really proud of how they finished the game."

After trailing 6-0 at the half, the Bulldogs put a saddle on Bryant Lester and rode him to the finish line as the 5-10, 205-pound junior fullback finished with 143 yards on 25 carries and two touchdowns.

Lester got Harrisburg on the board in the third quarter, scoring from two yards out with 7:08 to play and tied the game at 6-all after the two-point conversion failed.

Harrisburg sophomore Cooper Phalin fell on a Massac County fumble in the quarter at the Patriot 27-yard line and that resulted in a 25-yard pass from Ben Gulley to Jake Hefner with 4:41 to go as the Bulldogs took a 14-6 lead.

Massac County cut the lead to two, 14-12 after Tre Bagby crossed the goal line from one-yard out with 47.5 left in the third quarter.

The exclamation point on the day came when Lester punched in his second score of the day with 1:06 left in the fourth from five yards out, giving Harrisburg the 22-12 victory.

Angelly noted that Massac County took away the outside, preventing the Bulldogs from getting the edge. That's when the decision to punch it up the middle with Lester was made.

"Massac County did a great job of getting us contained on the outside. We wanted to get the edge and we had it a couple of times early, but they made the adjustments and made it tougher on us to get to the outside. We rode Lester hard. It was a steady diet of giving him the ball up the middle and he did a tremendous job. The last drive was just, 'hey, we're running this play until the stop us.' He did a great job of hanging onto the ball and powering ahead."

Spyder Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois LOCAL Media Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.

Massac County 6 0 6 0 - 12

Harrisburg 0 0 14 8 - 22

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

MC - Dumpprope 4 yd run (conversion failed), 1:11

Third Quarter

HB - Lester 2 yd run (conversion failed), 7:08

HB - Hefner 25-yard catch from Gulley (Satterfield catch from Gulley), 4:41

MC - Bagby 1 yd run (conversion failed), 47.5

Fourth Quarter

HB - Lester 5 yd run (Gulley conversion), 1:06

Team Totals

MC HB

Total Plays 48 59

Total Yards 236 310

Passing Yards 65 84

Rushing Yards 171 226

First Downs 12 13

Third Down Efficiency 2-8 (25%) 3-10 (30%)

Fourth Down Efficiency 1-2 (50%) 1-3 (33%)

Turnovers 2 1

Fumbles Lost 2 1

Interceptions Thrown 0 0

Penalties-Yards 4-26 6-45

Individual Totals

OFFENSE

PASSING - MC: Willis 4-10-0 65. HB: Gulley 6-10 -0 84 (1 TD).

RUSHING - MC: Dumpprope 7-47 (1 TD), Bagby 7-40 (1 TD), Scott 7-27, R. Helland 5-21, J. Willis 6-18, Bosecker 1-11. HB: Lester 25-143 (2 TD), Sattefield 4-56, Rider 4-25, Swarringin 3-1, Whiting 1-1. Gulley 4-(-19).

RECEIVING - MC: Scott 2-33, English 1-24, Dumpprope 1-8. HB: Hefner 2-45, Boon 2-23, Rider 1-13, Sattefield 1-3.

DEFENSE

TACKLES - HB: Rider 4, Hefner 3, Lester 6, Sam Martin 6, Neal Martin 4, Reeder 7, Unthank 8, Boon 2, Sattefield 4, Whiting 3, Phalin 2.